The US space agency's Phoenix Mars probe is only hours away from its planned rendezvous with the red planet. If all goes to plan, it will soon be sending back the first images from the north of the Martian arctic circle.

In a final briefing before touchdown, Nasa mission controllers described the landing sequence that lies ahead. So far, everything sounds as if it's gone extremely well.

Here's how well: Barry Goldstein of the Phoenix team said much of yesterday was spent agonising over a 1% risk of landing on a hill. If the probe touches down there, there is a 10% chance of setting down on a rock. All of which means, they spent an awful lot of time agonising over a 0.1% risk of a hairy landing. That is how well things are going. And long may it continue.

The tricky bit, of course, is yet to come. Before touchdown at around 00.53 Monday morning, the probe faces those much publicised seven minutes of terror - the entry sequence, where absolutely everything has to go right.

In the briefing, project manager Barry Goldstein talked about the terrain they expect Phoenix to land on. The icy surface is cracked into polygon shapes around 5m wide. With luck, the probe will land next to one of the edges of one of those polygons, allowing it to dig deeper into the Martian surface.

The probe will wait for the orbiting Mars Odyssey to fly over and receive radio signals that will be relayed to mission control here on Earth. The probe is expected to touchdown around 15 minutes before Nasa hears anything.

More here on the touchdown as soon as I can. In the meantime, for everything you need to know about the Mars mission, including video, galleries and interactives, click here.